About Tara
Hi there!
My name is Tara Lemerise and I've always been a seeker.
What I've been seeking has changed over time but the vast tradition of yoga has always offered me whatever I've been seeking.
What am I seeking?
What I've wanted and needed has changed over time. In my past, I've been looking for:
Community
Freedom
Boundaries
Healing
Compassion
Achievement
Truth
Spiritual Connection
Intellectual Discourse
And sometimes I've wanted and needed all of these things at once!
I discovered yoga when I was in college in 1999. Over the past 23 years of yoga study and 17 years of yoga teaching, I've engaged with many different styles of yoga. I've dabbled in some and done deep dedicated immersive serious study in others.
In every instance, I have brought my whole self to this study and practice with great love and reverence.
And I've always found what I was seeking in yoga.
I excel at learning systems and following rules to a tee. But recently, I've been seeking new things:
Agency
Self-trust
Empowerment
During the pandemic, away from in-person classes and the yoga studio model, I have relied on and trusted myself on my yoga mat and in my life in new ways.
This unexpected gift of being able to lean into the maturity of my practice, has created a relationship with yoga that feels more authentic and honest and present than ever before.
This Community
Students who come to my classes like my teaching because it is:
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Dogma free authenticity in harmony with honor for tradition.
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Offered with joy and compassion by a well-travelled guide, not by an authoritarian who promises all of the right answers.
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About feeling empowered and fortified, even when (or especially when!) you are lying around on a pile of props.
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Inspired by relatable stories rooted in yoga tradition that feel relevant to everyday life.
Students describe my teaching style as:
Your Teachers
I'm proud to have assembled an amazing group of well-trained, curious, and compassionate teachers to offer transformative practices in a way that feels safe, welcoming, and accessible.
Tara has a boundless amount of energy, a natural confidence and presence when teaching, and creates a calm, centered and joy filled space for every class. Her love for what she does is obvious to anyone taking her classes, and her love of yoga is transferred into every student who takes a class with her.
Herman, Takoma Park, MD
Thank goodness that I have an amazing yoga teacher in the DMV that has taught me how to modify poses for my body without shame. Thank you Tara for pushing my body and thank you for showing me how strong I am and to celebrate this body I live in.
Layla, Durham, NC
I love how Tara think of us, her students, holistically. She addresses not just getting into the poses and doing the thing–but who we are as people and what each pose might teach us. She brings herself fully to her classes and I’m always so grateful for her warmth and positivity too.